This invention relates to a novel method and associated means for installing carpeting, and in particular this invention relates to an improved method for readily securing the edges of rugs, carpets, and the like to a floor, and in such manner that the exposed edges of the carpet are covered to prevent accidents and damage to the carpet.
It has long been customary to employ elongate, rigid metal strips for securing the edges of wall-to-wall carpeting and the like to a wooden floor. Typically such strips includes a first longitudinally extending section having therein a plurality of spaced apertures for accommodating nails that are used for securing the strip to the floor. Integral with, and usually slightly offset from the first section of the strip is a carpet-gripping section having formed therealong a plurality of spaced, pointed projections, which are designed to engage and project into the underside of the carpeting along the edge thereof which is to be secured to the floor. In some instances these projections are in the form of a plurality of saw-tooth shaped teeth spaced along one edge of the carpet-gripping section of the strip, as shown for example in applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 4,069,542, as well as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,051,191 and 2,611,918. Other forms of strips employ sharp, triangularly shaped teeth that are struck up from the surface of the carpet-gripping section of the strip, as taught for example by U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,554,674, 3,008,173 and 2,733,475.
As an alternative to metal carpet securing strips, it has been customary also to employ elongate wooden strips which are secured by nails or the like to the floor, and which have projecting from their upper surfaces pointed ends of a plurality of spaced nails that are driven into the board at angles inclined to its upper and lower surfaces, as shown for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,677,145 and 3,670,360.
In more recent years it has become customary to employ extruded metal carpet strips of the type that generally are sold in elongate, twelve foot lengths, which makes them very difficult to ship and to handle. Moreover, these extruded strips are usually provided also with an elongate groove, which opens on the upper surface of the strip along one edge thereof to accommodate a rubber or plastic threshold insert or overlay. This type of carpet securing strip is frequently employed in those instances in which carpeting does not cover the entire surface of a floor, in which case the carpet projects, along at least one edge thereof, slightly above the uncarpeted portion of the floor. The above-noted insert or overlay is therefore secured along an edge of the metal carpet securing strip in such manner that it povides a bevelled or inclined, ramp-type surface between the edge of the metal strip and the uncarpeted portion of the floor. Modified forms of these overlays are also employed in cases where the metal carpet securing strips are designed to form a junction between two separate, but adjacent layers of installed carpeting.
In addition to being relatively expensive, one of the primary disadvantages of extruded carpet securing strips of the type described is that they are produced in such lengths that it makes it very difficult to ship and to handle the strips. Also, they obviously are more difficult to trim as compared to the old fashioned wooden carpet securing strips, since they require, among other things, the use of a metal cutting saw.
It is an object of this invention, therefore, to provide an improved, relatively simple and inexpensive method for installing carpeting, and in particular carpeting of the type which covers only a portion of a floor surface, or which terminates at a doorway or the like.
Still another object of this invention is to provide an improved method of installing carpeting which will obviate the need for employing elongate strips of metal for securing the edge of a carpet in place, and which, therefore, considerably reduces the cost of installing such carpeting.
It is an object also of this invention to provide improved clips, which are specifically designed for use in connection with conventional threshold inserts or overlays heretofore employed with extruded metal carpet securing strips.
Other objects of the invention will be apparent hereinafter from the specification and from the recital of the appended claims, particularly when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.